Yoni Wolf

Out of all the interviews I’ve done with up-and-coming artists over the years, the name that’s most consistently come up as a musical inspiration is Yoni Wolf, the mastermind behind WHY?. It’s not exactly a surprise — he strikes a balance between art and pop that’s consistently appealing — but it had been a while … More »

Grief, truth be told, is really just love. Or love lost. Grieving stems not from the death itself but from the loss of the person. It is the loss of laughter, the love, and the connections past, present, and future that we mourn. Anticon Records knows that it’s easier to deal with grief by flipping the script. And to properly celebrate a loved one’s life, you need nothing more than a time, a place, and friends and family that knew and appreciated the loved one best.

Doubling as its china anniversary, the “20 Years of Anticon: A Celebration of the Life of Brendon ‘Alias’ Whitney” benefit concert will take place Monday, June 25 at the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles, with all proceeds from ticket sales going to Whitney’s wife and children. The full line-up of performances and DJ sets includes the following Anticon acts and friends: Baths, Yoni Wolf, Doseone, Fog, Aceyalone, Dntel, Dosh, Jel, Pedestrian, Odd Nosdam, Daddy Kev, Tarsier, D33J (DJ), Hymie’s Basement, Themselves, Matthewdavid, Rituals of Mine (DJ), Subtle3, Antonionian, Bomarr, Thanksgiving Brown, Sodapop, and P-Minus. For tickets, head here.

Whitney, co-founder of Anticon and rapper/producer who recorded under the alias “Alias” passed away at the age of 41 following a heart attack on March 30. Besides the benefit concert celebration, a GoFundMe memorial campaign started by friends on behalf of Whitney and his wife, Jenn, and two children, Aiko and Inara, remains open for anyone wanting to contribute a heartfelt and much-appreciated donation.

Cincinnati’s all-girl art-rock project the Ophelias fits right in with the delicate, vulnerable, sadness-tinged indie rock of bands like Frankie Cosmos, but their avant-garde influences still have room to come through. More »

Don’t know about you, but WHY? frontman Yoni “The Wolf” Wolf and his roving hip-pop band of… well, fellow-wolves, I guess — are not about to take next 1,000,000 years or so lying down while Mother Nature just has her way with them. No way. The name of the game is “Proactive Evolution.”

Well, at least that’s the name of the new single from Wolf & co’s forthcoming (and sixth) new album, Moh Lhean, which is out March 3 on Joyful Noise. NOT AT ALL COINCIDENTALLY, the album is the band’s first in 1,000,000 years (okay, 5 years) and also marks “the first fully home-recorded WHY? album since the project’s 2003 debut,” a.k.a. back when recording yourself at home was a risky idea instead of a no-brainer. Co-produced by Yoni along with his brother Josiah, it features all the somber-voiced, deadpan surrealism and skittering OCD ear-candy that you need to escape the (totally inescapable) horrors of 2017.

Pre-order that momentary relief for yourself right now on any decadent combination of vinyl, CD, and digital iterations, and check out the “lyric video” for the “Proactive Evolution” down below. And when you’re done with that, check out the dates that the band is embarking upon in March and April. (No, seriously. Check them out. And maybe shoot me a congratulatory email; there’s like 1,000,000 of them, and I spent like 1,000,000 years formatting them.)

Moh Lhean tracklist:

01. This Ole King
02. Proactive Evolution
03. Easy
04. January February March
05. One Mississippi
06. The Longing Is All
07. George Washington
08. The Water
09. Consequence of Nonaction
10. The Barely Blur